【正文】
s prestige began to decline. Professional basketball remained a disanized and stodgy sport up until the late 1940s, with barnstorming still central to the game and most players still using the set shot. In 1946, however, hockey owners, led by Maurice Podoloff, created the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in the East to fill their arenas, but few fans came, even after Joe Fulks of Philadelphia introduced the jump shot. The BAA39。 Eddie Gottlieb39。s game by recognizing it as an Olympic event in 1976. Again, television coverage of the Olympics has been exceptionally important in drawing attention to international teams. The first professional men39。s original players were Canadians, and the game spread to Canada immediately. It was played in France by 1893。s National Basketball Association (WNBA) playoffs. And it has also made American heroes out of its player and coach legends like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Earvin Magic Johnson, Sheryl Swoopes, and other great players. At the heart of the game is the playing space and the equipment. The space is a rectangular, indoor court. The principal pieces of equipment are the two elevated baskets, one at each end (in the long direction) of the court, and the basketball itself. The ball is spherical in shape and is inflated. Basketballs range in size from in (7276 cm) in circumference, and in weight from 1822 oz (510624 g). For players below the high school level, a smaller ball is used, but the ball in men39。s level of internationalization. The policy will also bring direct economic revenue, Li said. Chengdu has many cultural legacies and is also a paradise for panda lovers with the world39。s largest breeding and research center. Three days are long enough for foreign visitors to visit those iconic tourist spots, he noted. The city is home to the remains of the Jin sha civilization that dates back more than 3,000 years as well as the Qing cheng Mountains and the Du jiang yan irrigation system. Qing cheng has long been recognized as the birthplace of Taoism, China39。s games measures in (7576 cm) in circumference, and a women39。 England in 1894。s basketball league in the United States was the National Basketball League (NBL), which debuted in 1898. Players were paid on a pergame basis, and this league and others were hurt by the poor quality of games and the everchanging players on a team. After the Great Depression, a new NBL was anized in 1937, and the Basketball Association of America was anized in 1946. The two leagues came to agree that players had to be assigned to teams on a contract basis and that high standards had to govern the game。s Philadelphia SPHAs (South Philadelphia Hebrew Association)。s rival, the National Basketball League, had existed since the 1930s, had better players, like Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers, Bob Davies of the Rochester Royals, and Dolph Shayes of the Syracuse Nationals, but operated in much worse facilities and did not do much better at attracting audiences. In 1948, Podoloff lured the Lakers, Royals, and two other teams to the BAA and proposed a merger of the two leagues for the 1949–1950 season. The result was the National Basketball Association (NBA), with Podoloff its first missioner. The seventeenteam league struggled at first but soon reduced its size and gained stability, in large part because of Mikan39。M was almost seven feet tall and Gee Mikan at DePaul was six feet ten inches. While Kurland had perhaps the better college career and played in two Olympics, he chose not to play professional ball, whereas Mikan became the first dominant star in the pros. Their defensive play inspired the rule against goal tending (blocking a shot on its downward flight). Adolph Rupp, who played under Phog Allen, also coached the first of his many talented teams at Kentucky in that decade. However, in 1951, Rupp and six other coaches suffered through a pointshaving scandal that involved thirtytwo players at seven colleges and seriously injured college basketball, particularly in New York, where four of the seven schools were located. While the game survived, the NCAA moved its tournament away from Madison Square Garden to different cities each year and the NIT39。 the Cleveland Rosenblums, owned by Max Rosenblum。s game. Television interest followed the women as well with broadcast of NCAA championship tourneys beginning in the early 1980s and the formation of the WNBA in 1997. Internationally, Italy has probably bee the leading basketball nation outside of the United States, with national, corporate, and professional teams. The Olympics boosts basketball internationally and has also spurred the women39。 smaller gyms used five players on a side, and the larger gyms allowed seven to nine. The team size became generally established as five in 1895, and, in 1897, this was made formal in the rules. The YMCA lost interest in supporting the game because 1020 basketball players monopolized a gymnasium previously used by many more in a variety of activities. YMCA membership dropped, and basketball